The invention relates to vehicle lamps and particularly to vehicle lamp boots. More particularly the invention is concerned with a vehicle lamp boot sealed to a housing to exclude water and dirt.
Vehicle headlamps are commonly formed with replaceable lamp capsules that extend into a reflector cavity. To aim the headlamp, the whole lamp housing may be adjusted up and down or right and left. It is now common to move just a portion of the lamp that includes the lamp capsule, the reflector or both. To prevent water and dirt from entering the region of the lamp housing between the fixed and the adjustable portions, a flexible rubber boot is joined to each to bridge between the two portions. Commonly an edge of the boot is inserted in a crevice to latch the boot to the housing. It has been found that the inserted portion may not be inserted well during manufacture; may work itself free during normal operations, or during the adjustment of the lamp or a combination of these. In any case, if the boot works itself free, the purpose of the boot fails, and water and dirt are free to enter through the unsealed portion. There is then a need for an improved seal for a vehicle lamp boot.
The seal of a vehicle lamp boot assembly can be improved by forming a lamp housing with an exterior sidewall and an interior sidewall, the exterior sidewall and the interior sidewall extending in similar patterns offset one from the other to define therebetween a connected groove wherein the exterior sidewall has a height measured from the bottom of the groove that is greater than the height of the interior sidewall, and a boot with a barrier wall and a lip edge, the lip edge circumferentially conforming to the defined groove and positioned in the defined groove. The barrier wall is positioned adjacent the interior sidewall portion of the housing.